Hope
Article I in the 2022 Advent Devotionals Series
Advent has begun! Rejoice and be glad, for this is the season of the coming of Christ. Christians have long held many sacred practices and beautiful traditions to commemorate and celebrate this time. Typically, each of the four Sundays of the season of Advent are assigned a particular theme: hope, love, joy, and peace. This first Sunday is the day of hope, and what a fitting message to begin this season with! Much of Christmas is filled with hope and anticipation for that blessed day that celebrates the coming of Jesus Christ: Christmas Day. It is then good to focus on hope, our primary companion in this holiday season.
Christmas is primarily a season of waiting, a season filled with longing and excitement for what is ahead. Christians await the coming of our messiah both in our everyday walk and in the season of Christmas. With this season we experience a small taste of the joy that will dawn on that day when we are finally united with our Lord God in heaven. In this way, Christmastime is an excellent mirror of how everyday life as a Christian is spent. Just as much of Christmastime is spent in anticipation, so too is the life of a Christian. For we are always waiting for the Lord’s second coming or for our going to Him. This season is good practice in waiting, but it is also a taste of His coming.
Though Christ is not coming in the flesh this December 25th (as far as I know), a worldwide celebration of his first coming is. In medieval thought, Christmas Day was the actual day of Christ’s coming. While we think of time as dragging on linearly, the medievals thought that time moved in a circular nature. Thus to the medievals, Christmas Day was quite literally as close to Christ’s coming as one could get, for December 25th was and is the day of Christ’s own first day on earth. Considering Christmas Day in this way makes the hope of Christmastime all the more poignant. Our hope is, in some small and partial way, fulfilled on this day. Christ has come once and he will come again. Our hope is a sure hope through our confidence in Christ. As 1 Peter 1: 3 says “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” This living hope is what Christmas is all about. We have a sure hope and a true belief in Christ and that he has saved us from our sins and will return to restore this world to a perfect state. It is this hope that leads to love, joy, and peace. Treasure the hope, the anticipation, and the waiting of Christmas; it is good for one’s soul and will ultimately be fulfilled.
This article is part of a series. For more articles in this series, see below.
